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NotTaR of Television Sets : Brightening an old CRT                  
 Copyright © 1994-2007, Samuel M. Goldwasser. All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of this document in whole or in part is permitted if both of the following conditions are satisfied: 1. This notice is included in its entirety at the beginning. 2. There is no charge except to cover the costs of copying. I may be contacted via the Sci.Electronics.Repair FAQ (www.repairfaq.org) Email Links Page.

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Brightening an old CRT

If performing adjustments of the internal background and/or screen controls still results in a dark picture even after a long warmup period, the CRT may simply be near the end of its useful life. In the old days of TVs with short lived CRTs, the CRT brightener was a common item (sold in every corner drugstore, it seemed!).

You can try a similar approach. Caution: this may shorten the life of the CRT - possibly quite dramatically (like it will blow in a couple of seconds or minutes). However, if the monitor or TV is otherwise destined for the scrap heap, it is worth a try.

The approach is simple: you are going to increase the voltage to the filaments of the electron guns making them run hotter. Hopefully, just hotter enough to increase the brightness without blowing them out.

Voltage for the CRT filament is usually obtained from a couple of turns on the flyback transformer. It is usually easy to add an extra turn or two which will increase the voltage and thus the current making the filaments run hotter. This will also shorten the CRT life - perhaps rather drastically. However, if the TV or monitor was headed for the dumpster anyhow, you have nothing to lose.